From 2013 to 2023 the Centre completed numerous high-impact research projects in the areas of Geoscience, Social performance, Water and Engineering.
A summary of these projects and their benefits, as well as a link to their more comprehensive project pages, can be found below.
| Theme | Project title |  |  |  |
|
 | Groundwater 3D online atlas | Quality assured the data | Made it all viewable and in context for the public | |||
| Great Artesian Basins: new body of knowledge | Evidence-based body of knowledge to inform how to best manage the finite resource into the future | |||
| Groundwater uses in the Surat and Bowen Basins | New technique for estimating water flow in non-metered bores | Being used for improved modelling confidence by UQ & OGIA | |||
| Recharge estimation in the Surat Basin | Measured for the first time in the field recharge rates in representative type locations | Being used for improved modelling confidence by UQ & OGIA | |||
| Re-setting water and salt estimations | Independent review which reset early overestimated estimates | Fed into improved forward predictive modelling | Provided independent new estimates and explained why initial estimates were so much larger | ||
| Salt compression | Provides an option to reduce volume of landfill and also to stabilise salts | |||
| Potential uses for salt left over from CSG water treatment | Investigated a beneficial use for salts left over from CSG water treatment | |||
| Methane emissions analysis in the Bowen/Surat | Provided a baseline of occurrence of natural hydrocarbons before CSG | The baseline helps understand any new occurrence and natural viability | ||
| Silica characterisation in the coal seam water train | Reduces water processing cost and energy use | Reducing & optimising the use of chemicals during reverse osmosis process, hence reducing adverse environmental effects | ||
| Shallow gas environmental risk scoping & management | Could optimise gas production to increase gas supply | Improve understanding of potential risks and mitigation strategies | ||
| Ground movement environmental risk scoping & management | Potential to optimise production tailored to geomechanical characteristics | Understanding the various contributors to the net movement of the ground surface | ||
| |||||
|
|
|
| ||
 | Building the next generation of digital models to guide management of groundwater and natural gas resources | May allow for fewer wells | Improved tool for estimating groundwater impacts in overlying and underlying aquifers | May lead to better quality predictive modelling for groundwater impacts | |
| Depletion mechanics: investigating bulk geomechanical properties of depleted coals | May improve engineering design relating to drilling and completion of wells and wellbore stability | May improve engineering design relating to drilling and completion of wells and wellbore stability | ||
| Petrel Plug-in development: Geostatistical techniques: recoverable resources & fluid flow (copulas) | May allow for fewer wells, or avoidance of poor wells | Improves estimation of resources in highly heterogenous gas reservoirs | Improved tool for estimating groundwater impacts in overlying and underlying aquifers | |
| Integrated sequence stratigraphy | Improves estimation of resources in highly heterogenous gas reservoirs | Improved tool for estimating groundwater impacts in overlying and underlying aquifers | May lead to better quality predictive modelling for groundwater impacts | |
| Faults & fractures in the Surat Basin | Improves estimation of resources in highly heterogenous gas reservoirs | Improved tool for estimating groundwater impacts in overlying and underlying aquifers | ||
| Reservoir modelling: reducing uncertainty with polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) | May improve estimation of resources in highly heterogenous gas reservoirs | May provide an improved tool for estimating groundwater impacts in overlying and underlying aquifers | ||
| Well integrity: simple modelling | Provides first connected leak path modelling. Further work is in train | Provides first connected leak path modelling. Initial work suggests flow of gas up (or water down) is negligible | ||
|
|
|
| ||
 | Cumulative socio-economic indicators - online tool to measure socio-economic change across communities | Independent metrics chosen by stakeholders to measure changes over time | |||
| Golden rules of gas: how Queensland stacks up | Highlights where there is most room for improvement and validates the rules as being important | |||
| Stakeholder trust in the CSG industry | Snap-shot in time and trend of trust levels across main stakeholder groups as well as advice on trust enhancing measures | |||
| How do local small and medium businesses adapt to the arrival of CSG development? SME study: Economic trends & benefits | Provides tips to SMEs | |||
| Improving co-existence between on CSG and agriculture | Quantifying effects on production and profitability | Strategies for co-existence | |||
| How has CSG been represented in the media & public discourse | How the dynamic of media discourse changed over time from jobs & investment to environmental threat & groundwater | |||
| Measuring effectiveness of investment in school education programs | Baseline to be used to assess the future effectiveness of STEM enrichment programs. | |||
| Best-practice regulation and governance systems for the unconventional gas sector | Guidelines and robust processes of research integrity and governance that reinforce research outputs from the Centre | |||
|
|
|
| ||
 | Well productivity: Environmental stimulation technologies | Could provide alternative to hydraulic stimulation | Could provide higher recovery per well or conversion of tight resources | May find benign chemicals for well bore treatment | Possibly enable fewer wells per volume of gas (footprint) | Potentially, if an alternative can be found | May stimulate business growth or longevity |
| Enhancing CSG well production through well bottom-hole pressure control | Could reduce cost and energy use | Could enhance gas production | Potentially reduce environmental impact | |
| Reducing fines damage: Selective wellbore coatings | Stabilising fines would reduce work-overs and opex and energy use | Could provide higher recovery per well through reduced downtime | May reduce work-over related emissions | Would require fewer well visits |
| Well abandonment: advanced plugging technology | May be a lower cost than conventional techniques | Potential for improved sealing of gas wells and legacy coal wells | ||
| Converting tight resources with graded particle injection in CSG stimulation | Could enable lower cost stimulations | Could enable higher recovery per well | May enable fewer wells per volume of gas (footprint) | |
|
Sustainable enhancement of coal seam gas production in Queensland
| Could enable conversion of tight resources | May enable fewer wells per volume of gas (footprint) | Could stimulate business growth or longevity | |
| Well performance: Rock properties using existing field data & real-time drilling data | Could reduce data acquisition costs | Could allow better optimisation of hydraulic stimulation | ||
| Enhancing well deliverability and reducing the work-over cost using big data predictive analytics | Could optimise pump performance and minimise down time and reduce energy use | Reduces downtime or 'deferment' on producing wells | May enable fewer wells per volume of gas (footprint) and lessen access requirements for rigs maintenance activities which will reduce the environmental impacts associated with well workovers | May lessen access requirements for rigs maintenance activities which will decrease the disruption to rural activities where the wells are located, ease local traffic |
| Well productivity: High pressure water & gas impact on permeability | Increasing the understanding of the fundamental physics of gas recovery | |||
| How does temperature affect gas production? | Scoping study into enhanced recovery by application of heat | |||
|
|
|
|
